Marpenoth 28, 1372 DR (3:00 PM) The Dordrien Crypts

Yol casts her spell and walks slowly back up the hallway, her scowl
even deeper than usual. Everybody else follows.

As Yol reaches the narrow cavern approaching the roper's lair, she
stops and stares intently at a long section of wall that contained no
graves. "Interesting ..." she starts.

"Come on, Yol, move over to the graves. Skip the boring wall!" says
Hazen. He looks over the wall section. "Nothing here!" He pokes it
with his hand, and stares, his mouth hanging open, as his hand sinks
into the wall. "Uh..."

"As I was about to say, I detect the aura of Illusion on this wall,"
says Yol.

Veracity walks up and sticks her hand into the illusory wall.
She moves from side to side, discovering that it's at least twenty
feet wide. "Come on Igor! Right through here!"

The party lines up and marches into and through the illusion. On the
far side is a large cavern. There are two huge spider-like creatures
in the room. One stays back near an exit in the far wall while the
other advances, clicking.

Veracity draws her two swords and easily dodges a glob of webbing that
the advancing bebilith shoots at her. Igor dodges the webbing fired
at him by the other bebilith and draws his great sword.

Veracity steps up and swings the Sword of Kas at the advancing
creature, barely missing.

The rest of the party starts to make its way through the wall. Tebryn
stops as soon as he arrives, assessing the situation. Brianna steps
through and, quickly deciding on her course of action, starts to sing
an inspiring song. The invisible Hazen steps through the wall and
steps to the side. Kress draws his battle axe.

Veracity's opponent bites her, injecting poison. "Oh!" she gasps,
shuddering, but she shakes off the initial effects. The bebilith
claws twice at her but misses both times.

The other spider demon advances up to Igor and bites at him, but
misses. Igor strikes three times at it with his great sword. He hits
twice, one of the blows being exceptionally powerful. The bebilith
quivers but holds its ground.

Kress runs through the illusion, barely missing Tebryn, and quickly
sizes up the situation. He runs up to aid Veracity and hits the
spider with his axe.

Veracity slashes her opponent three times. Her opponent bites her yet
again, afflicting her with yet more poison. Again, she resists the
initial effects. And again, the spider demon misses her with both
claws.

Igor's opponent bites him, inflicting a grave wound and poisoning him.
He, too, shrugs off the venom, although he feels it entering his
blood. The spider fiend also claws Igor once, wounding him slightly.
Hazen runs up behind Igor's opponent and strikes at it with his
dagger. He misses, but appears before the eyes of all, as his
invisibility drops. "Oops!" comments Hazen.

Kress slashes Veracity's bebilith, twice, but it remains standing.

Igor strikes his opponent with two powerful blows and it drops to the
floor, twitching. He steps over to confront Veracity's opponent.

Veracity strikes it and Igor takes the opportunity to strike it
himself, dropping it.

Veracity sulks. "You did it again, Igor. Taking away my fun. I was
about to polish it off with my next blow, but it crumpled at my feet
before I could do that."

Igor raises his eyebrows at her. "Remember what you said last time?
I thought we were working as a team."

Veracity pulls herself together. "Oh, right. Good job. But, you
still took my fun... Umm. Yol! Can you help me, please? I was
bitten twice, and I can still feel the poison, coursing through my
body. It worries me. Neutralize it, please?"

Yol steps up and looks into Veracity's eyes. "Ah, yes. Doesn't that
make you feel the closeness of Death? Sobering, isn't it? Do you
like the feeling?"

"No more spells, Igor, but I can tend to that," answers Yol. She
examines his wound and treats it. Igor's poison subsides without
doing him further harm.

"Thanks," says Igor.

Brianna walks up to her friend. "Those bites look nasty. I am glad
Yol cured the poison. Allow me to cure the injuries, please." She
sings a short melody and touches Veracity. All of Veracity's wounds
close up and disappear.

Veracity grins at her. "Thanks!"

Brianna grins back. "My pleasure."

Yol looks at the spider demons. "I expect their venom is worth
keeping. Let me harvest some of it." She bends over one of the
creatures and probes its poison sacs with her dagger.

"Shouldn't you have waited for us all to get ready before going
through that wall, Veracity?" grumbles Kress. "I heard sounds of
battle before I even had a chance to enter the cavern, and I almost
tripped on your brother when I came through."

Veracity raises her eyebrows. "Igor and I went through together.
And, as the leader of this party, I think..."

"You?" exclaims Hazen. "Come on. I think..."

"Calm down," says Veracity, holding up her hand. "Who else but me?"

Brianna leans on her and gazes into her eyes, smiling. "You have my
vote," she says, raising her hand, as well.

"Hey!" exclaims Hazen. "Me! Me! I'm in charge here." He raises his
hand, and all turn to look at him, Veracity and Brianna lowering their
hands. "Let's see those hands for Hazen!" shouts the Grey Dwarf, one
arm waving over his head and the other held out in front,
supplicating. He dances around and starts chanting. "Come on,
Hazen's the guy. Raise 'em! I'm the one! Kress?"

Kress rolls his eyes and turns away. Everybody else stares at him
with their jaws hanging open. Hazen looks from one person to the
next. When it becomes clear that nobody else is going to vote for
him, as he stands with his back to a dead bebilith, he lifts one of
its legs up with the back of his foot. Pointing at the upraised leg,
he shouts out and gestures. "Look at that! Support from an unexpected
quarter!" He runs over to the other spider demon and does the same
thing. "Hey, and each of these guys get eight votes. So that
makes..." Hazen starts calculating, looking at the ceiling and
muttering. "nineteen for me, I win!"

Everybody stares at him silently for a second, shaking their heads in
wonder at his little display. Tebryn starts and looks up. "Someone
is crying in the next room," he says. "I hear it too," says Igor. All
rush into the next room leaving Hazen alone. "It's lonely at the top,"
he mutters, shrugging.